DAVID Beckham has been ridiculed in Europe and reviled in the USA, but it could all turn out just heavenly for the Galaxy's brightest star.

The snarling confrontation with disaffected LA Galaxy fans and the fall-out with influential team-mate Landon Donovan will be all forgotten today asDavid Beckham lives the American dream.

It’s been effectively three seasons in the making, but the MLS Cup final between the Galaxy and Real Salt Lake in Seattle proves that the hype and hysteria which accompanied Beckham’s unveiling in California in July 2007 was justified after all.

There have been casualties along the way, but Beckham has stuck it out despite constant criticism from Europe that he had sold his soul to Mickey Mouse football and had brought his international career to a close in the process.

Beckham’s appearance in last weekend’s Western Conference final against Houston Dynamo gave ESPN2 its highest ratings for a ‘soccer’ game. Today’s game will be shown on the broadcaster’s main channel, with record viewing figures again expected.

It’s also payback time for LA Galaxy and the MLS, who invested $250million on Beckham’s five-year contract. He may be off to AC Milan for a second loan spell in January but Beckham has promised to return to the USA after the World Cup finals, for which he seems certain to be in the England squad.

Beckham is giving serious thought to taking up the option in his contract to purchase a MLS franchise in 2012. He has told friends that he could launch a new club in Canada, New York or Miami. Wife Victoria loves living in the USA; their three boys are well settled in Los Angeles; and a return to England looks unlikely in the near future.

Beckham admits: “What’s so good is that we have a normal life in America. We are generally left alone as a family. Unlike in Spain, we don’t have photographers following us here, there, everywhere. The only reason I’m going to Italy is because AC Milan are one of the biggest clubs in the world and I need to be playing regularly at the highest level if I’m going to continue to be picked by England.”

It was that obsession with his country that provoked heated demonstrations among some Galaxy fans on Beckham’s return from his first loan to the San Siro. After his first game back, stewards had to prevent a confrontation with one outraged supporter as Beckham made his way down the tunnel.

Relations between Beckham and the LA Galaxy fans hadn’t been helped by team-mate Donovan’s assertion that the midfielder didn’t care about the club. But Beckham kept his head down and turned things around with some compelling displays, which also placated USA international Donovan.

“It’s hard at times not to react to things. What helped is that I have been used to criticism all my career,” Beckham

admitted. While collecting his kids from school in recent days, Beckham has worn a moon boot because of an ankle injury.

But nothing will stop him playing today as he bids to win a domestic championship in a third country, having done so in England and Spain. Coach and former USA boss Bruce Arena believes that some players could have been destroyed by the criticism which came Beckham’s way on his return from Italy.

Arena said: “The reason it didn’t happen is because he showed he cares about LA Galaxy. His performances quietened his detractors. He’s played with some of the biggest clubs in the world and has been through a lot. He has won over his team-mates and the supporters.”

With wife Victoria recently featuring on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar magazine, and with the possibility of opening a modelling agency in New York, there are plenty of reasons for Beckham to be sleepless in Seattle. The main one, though, will be celebrating deep into the small hours after landing the biggest trophy in USA soccer.